Diablo 3 v1.0.7 PTRs Planned – Soon

It looks like the Diablo 3 v1.0.7 patch will indeed be with us soon and the there will be a PTR to test out the changes. A lengthy session of Blue posts by Vaneras on the EU forums state:

PTRs are indeed planned 🙂

There have been quite a few requests (demands even) recently for more player-testing of content before we release it, and we would like to accommodate that whenever it makes sense to do so. A downside when player-testing is involved is that more time is required before content can be released, but we are of course trying to find a good balance on that so that the wait for new content is not unreasonably long.

I am unfortunately not yet able to provide any specifics on the content that will be tested, but it does look to be a sizeable patch 🙂

Also, the Diablo III PvP Update blog mentions that dueling is currently scheduled to release with patch 1.0.7, so hopefully (if all goes well) you guys should be able to get some testing done on that.

At this point there is still no ETA on when the patch will arrive but at least we know there will be some sort of test period before the final version is released. Vaeflare also added the following on the PvP blog update we’re all waiting for:

We don’t have a release date to share at the moment concerning patch 1.0.7, but it’s being worked on as we speak. In terms of the details surrounding dueling, we’re working on a preview of the system and the patch as a whole (the format is pretty similar to this, actually, including being written by a dev) that should address the bulk of your questions. We’d rather share the information with you once the patch preview is ready, though, rather than dole out bits and pieces.

It’s truly worse than that. The arena PvP was playable at Blizzcon… in 20 ffffing 10!, and again in 2011. So, Blizzard worked on it, demo’d it, demo’d it again a year later, which was approximately 9 months! prior to game release in May 2012, and then killed it for release promising it later in the year, which came and went.

Since Blizzcon 2010, Blizzard has had OVER 2 years! to test/polish/cancel arena PvP. So ya, just about anyone could have done it in half the time and not cancelled it.

Last PTR I didn’t participate, but I did enjoy watching videos of people testing out the uber event and other changes. I look forward to watching people test out dueling and whatever else they add in this upcoming PTR.

1. General balance changes across all classes to buff underused skills and rune effects. Highest buffs for Wizard. 2. Sentry no longer effected by “reflect dmg”. 3. Thrive on Chaos – Every 10 fury gained with fury generating skills while WoTB is active will add 1 second to the duration of the effect. 4. Base gold pickup range increased by 1y 5. One with everything – Your resistance to all other elements is set to 85% of your highest elemental resistance. 6. Combination strike – Each different spirit generator you use increase your dmg by 12% for 10s. 7. Redesign “Guiding Light” – Whenever you use a direct heal spell, you and all allies within 20 yards deal 16% more dmg for 15sec. Or something similar. 8. One or 2 new offensive passives for monk.

Sentry is obscenely powerful. I fear they’re going to stop it being affected by Reflect Damage because of whining, when it was actually an affix that would make you stop and think before spamming the same skills you used on every other mob

It’s not obscenly powerful. It’s comparable to Hydra in terms of dmg really.

It got 175% weapon dmg but no crit. So that means that you’ll can cut the dmg in half for a well geared character. Unless you don’t go for crit at all, but then you sort of allready gimped yourself in the first place by having a lower dps.

Well, all I can say is we’ve had different experiences with the skill. I’ve found chucking down a couple of sentries and kiting can easily take out mobs that would otherwise kill my char if he actually took the time to shoot once in a while. And they’ve saved my bacon many a time.

I guess, if you play on a higher MP level, doing ubers, or are undergeared, sentry is one hell of a skill. But when you farm and collect items and gold on MP0 or MP1 it is only really useful for yellow champion pack bosses with increased health. It’s still a good skill even on those lower levels but not in any way OP. I can see it being to good in PvP though. We’ll find out soon.

These small changes are good, but will be unnoticeable after a short while. Blizz needs to implement something BIG. Some better itemization, enchants, socketables, crafting and better end game content (expand on the infernal machine idea).

Not for me, I think the game and gameplay is where it needs to be. The thing I really want is more balance across skills and rune effect so that more builds are viable. Partly because I the kind of guy that likes to experiment around with new builds a lot, but mostly because only having 1 or 2 really good options for each skill really undermines the idea of having 5 rune effects.

If they gonna add anything I want more legendary items with niche attributes to encourage the use of some of the least used skills.

“so hopefully (if all goes well)” – we are trying our best to ship the game with PvP – we are trying our best to ship PvP after a couple of months after launch – still trying – we are trying our best to ship PvP in 2012 – we don’t think we can release PvP in 2012 – Hay guise, PvP blog soon 😀 – soon – soon – We just trashed PvP in its current form, sry